Blinded by Love
by FlameAlchemistLove
Summary: When an escaped experiment from the School shows up at the flock's house, will Iggy be able to keep his feelings in check to protect her-and the rest of the flock-from the Erasers and from himself? Contains mild swearing, slight violence, blood, slight kissing in later chapters, rated T for later chapters, Iggy x OC ***DISCONTINUED***
1. Prologue

Iggy yawned widely and traipsed into the living room. He felt his bare feet scuff against the carpet, silently counting. _One, two, three steps, and the couch is right here_.

The blind fourteen-year-old spun on his heel and dropped onto the couch—

—directly onto something warm, twisting, and _alive_.

Max opened her mouth to make a comment about having ice cream for breakfast when a howl like a feral animal erupted from down the hall. Fang leapt to his feet, dark eyes stretching wide. Angel gasped. Gazzy rushed to her side. Nudge's wings flared wide, along with Fang and Max.

Iggy, skidding on the carpet, stumbled and pounded into the kitchen, eyes huge as he accidentally slammed into the table and hit his back on the floor.

"Erasers! Erasers!" he howled, rolling to his feet and feeling around wildly, getting a grasp on where the table was. "In the living room!"


	2. Chapter 1 - Strawberries

Well, I've just recently gotten into Maximum Ride, and I've fallen in love~!

This is my solo fanfiction with Maximum Ride, where my OC, Desiree Stallion, shows up mysteriously at the flock's house. Takes place before the first book, when they still, y'know, HAVE a house.

I will be posting another Maximum Ride F/f that my friend, Emylee, and I are writing together. ;) Enjoy!

* * *

Fang, always on his toes, grabbed two butter knives and his jackknife and tore into the living room. Max followed hard on his heels, along with the rest of the flock, a trembling Iggy bringing up the rear.

There was a figure tangled up in a blanket and thrashing about on the floor, shrieking and twisting. "I'm not an Eraser! I'm not, I'm not!" she shrieked.

Fang's eyes narrowed.

Max rushed forward and grabbed one end of the blanket, jerking on it hard. The girl tumbled backwards out of the fabric, landing hard on the floor.

Iggy clutched onto Nudge's shoulders. "Where is it?" he demanded, blind eyes fixed straight ahead. "Where is it?"

"Ig, calm down," Max hushed, not taking her eyes from the girl looking up in terror from the floor. "She's not an Eraser. She's hardly a threat." Max smiled. "What's your name?"

"My-My…name?" the girl repeated in a squeaky voice. "I'm not an Eraser. I promise. I'm not going to hurt any of you! Please! I just needed somewhere to sleep!"

"Calm down, darling," Max said, kneeling in front of her and smiling. "My name's Maximum Ride, but you can call me Max. This is Fang, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, and Iggy."

"I don't have a name," she said after a long moment, still looking at the blind boy warily. "I just escaped from th-the School. I don't think you've—"

"You're one of the test subjects too, aren't you?" Fang interrupted. He let the knives clatter to one of the side tables as he ran one hand through his hair and sighed. "We come from the School too. We escaped four years ago."

The girl stopped trembling. "Do you all have wings?"

"Yes," Max said with a bright smile. "Do you?"

The girl swallowed hard before extending fourteen foot wings, a bright white with darker black flecks and brown trim. There was silence in the living room.

"What's going on?" Iggy demanded. "Someone tell me what the hell's up!" His voice rose. "You all can see, can't you? Someone _fill me in!_"

"She's got wings too, Ig," Angel said in an innocent voice. "I don't know what kind of bird they are, though."

"Describe them to me."

Max did.

"They sound like Snowy Owl," Iggy said after a long moment of thought. "If the feathers are thin and, how should I put this…slitted on the edges, then they're owl wings. They're designed for strong, silent flight."

Max reached out and gently felt the feathers. "So you've got the wings of an owl," she said. "And you said you don't have a name?"

She shook her head.

"Well, name or no name, we can't turn you down breakfast," Gazzy insisted, bouncing up to Max's side. "We're having _ice cream!_"

"Now, hey, I never said we could—" Max tried.

"What's…ice cream?"

"It's delicious, you'll love it," Nudge replied. "Trust us! Come on and we'll get you some."

"Hey! I didn't say we could have ice cream!"

Her words were lost on the rest of the flock. With a hefty sigh, Max gave up.

Iggy hesitated by the door as the flock left, Max tailing them. She paused in front of Iggy, whose head was still turned toward the girl fingering her feathers. "You okay, Ig?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," he said absently. "I'm fine."

"Come into the kitchen in a few, okay?"

"Mkay."

Once Maximum had left, Iggy paced toward the girl and, based on the sound of her breathing and shifting, he knelt in front of her. "Can I touch your wings?"

He heard the soft rustling of feathers and he stretched out one hand, meeting thin air. "You'll have to help me here," he joked softly.

Her cool hand closed around his own and pulled him forward until his fingers touched the silky fringes. He fingered the feathers as she asked, "Are you blind?"

"Yeah," he said. "The whitecoats at the School tried to enhance my night vision about six years ago and I ended up going blind." He ran his slim index finger down one of the long feathers. "They feel dirty."

"Yeah," she said. "When I was running away from the School, I fell and tumbled down a hill. I think I sprained my wrist when I did so, too."

"Let me see."

His fingers gingerly graced the tender bones. He could feel heat radiating from the wrist bones, just below her hand, and when he touched it with the slightest amount of pressure, she took in a sharp breath.

"Yeah, I think it's sprained," he said, standing up. "You want to wait here? I can go get a first aid kit and bandage it if it's bothering you."

"Are you sure?" the nameless girl said.

"Positive."

* * *

After breakfast—which, true to Gazzy's words, consisted of ice cream, pancakes, and bacon—Iggy found the girl sitting in a tree outside of the house.

He spread his wings and lofted into the air, landing beside her. "You okay?"

"Oh—Iggy. How'd you see me up—er! I mean—"

"S'alright, just a stupid slip-up," Iggy responded. "I've got sharper hearing than the rest of the flock. You left the kitchen and went straight up. I figured you wouldn't go anywhere too far from the house. I guess I figured correctly."

They laughed. Iggy could feel warm sunlight gracing the side of his face and he turned toward it, wishing with all his heart he could see just one sunrise.

"Is it hard?" she asked suddenly.

"Is what hard?" he responded.

"Not…being able to see like the others. You can't get around like they can."

"That's both true and not true," he corrected her. "I can get around the house fine on my own, and the woods around here, but anywhere else, I need some help so that I don't run into anything."

"Mmm. Is that why you thought I was an Eraser at first?"

"Yeah," he admitted sheepishly. "I had a nightmare last night about the Erasers storming the house, and I didn't sleep much after that. I was just paranoid this morning."

"I wondered," she replied. "I had my wings curled over myself while I was sleeping. It's a bad habit. I thought you would have to be pretty stupid to see my wings and still think I was an Eraser."

"All I could figure was that you were alive, quiet, and in our living room," Iggy said with a shrug.

They were quiet for a moment before he said, "You said you didn't have a name?"

"They simply called me Specimen Seventeen at the School," she responded, and he heard the rustling of feathers, as if she had shrugged. "I didn't even think of a name until I showed up here and Max asked me."

"Well, we should come up with a name for you," Iggy said definitively.

"We? As in the two of us?"

"Sure, why not?" he said. "Now, let's think. What color's your hair?"

"The hell's that got to do with anything?" she muttered. "Silver blonde with a single streak of black in my side bangs. And before you ask, my eyes are aquamarine."

"I liked that color before I went blind," Iggy mused. "What do you like?"

"Um… Chocolate. Flying. Apples. Stars."

"Stars?"

"Yeah. I couldn't see them from where I was in the School," she explained, "and I escaped two nights ago. All I could see for miles were the stars and the moon. They were so pretty and I just fell in love with them."

"Hmm."

"Y'know, I met a girl in the School who was kidnapped by the Erasers," she continued after a thoughtful pause, "who called herself Cacao, because of her love of chocolate. She said she had a sister named Desiree. I like the name Desiree."

"Should we call you Desiree then?" Iggy inquired.

"Sure. That sounds pretty."

"Desiree," Iggy repeated, tasting the name on his tongue. "Should you have a last name?"

"Stallion," she said instantly.

"Stallion?"

"I think it's a kind of horse," she said. "I saw horses when I was running away too. They were so pretty and so _strong_. They were almost as fast as I was. I like horses."

"Okay then, Desiree Stallion," Iggy said. "That's your name now."

"I like that name," she chimed, and it sounded like she was smiling. "Desiree Stallion."

"Hey, Ig!"

Iggy almost jumped.

"What?" he called down, tipping his head down toward the house.

"We're going to go to the strawberry patch!" Maximum called. "You two want to come?"

He turned to Desiree. "Do you want to go with them?"

"Sure," she said energetically. "I've never seen a strawberry before. What is it?"

Spreading his wings, Iggy plummeted from the tree and swooped up in an arc. "You'll love them!" he called as he felt the rush of air that signaled the rest of the flock taking off. "They're delicious!"

* * *

Desiree's face lit up as she bit into the ripe red fruit. She laughed and took another, tearing off the leaves and popping it whole into her mouth. "These are amazing!"

"What'd I tell you?" Iggy said, fishing through the leaves of a bush. "Hey, what color are these?" He had his fingers around a clump of four bright red strawberries.

"They're all red," she said, and he pulled them from the bush and held them out.

"Here," he said. "You can have some more. I'm sure Angel and Max can get enough for me to make them a cake."

* * *

Max smiled at Iggy and Desiree and looked over to Fang. "Hey, you notice what I have?"

"That Iggy's being an attention hog?" Fang asked. "That there are more ripe strawberries this year than there have been in the past four years? That Angel's eating more than she's picking? I could go on."

"I think Iggy's got his eye on the new girl. Metaphorically, of course," Max said with a wider smile. "You think he's falling for Desiree?"

"Perhaps," Fang said, popping a small red strawberry between his lips and chewing on it, watching the blind boy and the new girl. "You think she can join the flock?"

"Of course she can," Max said instantly. I'm not going to, like, make her go on her own way, you know? She won't be able to fit in anywhere else. She may as well stay with us—and I'm sure Iggy would be crushed if I made Desiree leave."

Fang smirked. "Don't you know it."


	3. Chapter 2 - Hurt

If you've not noticed by now, yes, the chapters are longer in this F/f than they have been in, say, _Twins in Love_. That's because I'm trying to make these chapters longer so there's less of them ;)

PLOT TWIST - Desi's being kidnapped by the Erasers!

Enjoy~! ;)

* * *

_"Desiree!_" Iggy screamed, his wings launching himself upwards. He could hear the sharp _shh shh shh_ of the helicopter blades, the loud roar of the Hummer engines. _Why, oh why, of all times, do I have to be blind?_

"Iggy!" The loud, panicked shriek echoed from above him. Iggy pumped his wings harder, shooting straight up. He swerved around one of the copters, barely missing it, and flew harder. He could already tell the 'copter with her in it was heading farther away.

The rest of the flock had gone off on one of their expeditions, back to the strawberry patch at Angel's request. Iggy and Desiree had stayed behind at the house, hoping to catch some quiet time and maybe bake a cake or some cookies to surprise them.

Then the Erasers had shown up.

Iggy could feel the wind tearing at his hair as he flew harder, straining to pick up even the slightest sounds. One of the helicopter blades whisked over his head. He swooped down and back up, feeling a break in the air where the body of the copter was.

He reached out, crying out her name again—

—just as a gun cracked loudly and tore through his shoulder, throwing him backwards and out of the sky.

* * *

Angel, halfway to the strawberry patch, stopped flying and hovered in midair, head cocked like she was listening.

Max noticed Angel's pause and called to the others, stopping as well. "Angel, what's—"

"They're in trouble!" she shrieked at once, launching herself back towards the house. "Desiree and Iggy! Erasers! They've got Desi!"

* * *

Iggy vaguely remembered hitting the rough bark of a tree, felt one of his wings crack sickeningly. He had clutched at his bad shoulder as he tumbled down the thick branches, landing hard on his back at the bottom.

Iggy rolled onto his side, coughing up a mouthful of blood. "Dammit," he rasped to himself. "My ribs…"

He heard a dim voice. "Iggy! Ig! Can you hear us?"

"Max," he whispered, closing his eyes. Not that it made a difference. He was already blind. _Angel. Angel, read my thoughts. I'm over here. Not that I know where it is. It smells like pine. I've been shot…_

"He's hurt!" a high-pitched cry erupted. "Iggy! Keep thinking at me!"

Her words would have made the fourteen-year-old laugh at any other time. _My shoulder… I think my right wing…is broken… _His brain began fuzzing over. _I can't…stay…awake…_

"He's passing out!"

He heard feet pounding closer, voices shouting his name.

He couldn't cling to consciousness any longer. He gave into the sweet confines of unconsciousness just as a bush close by rustled, branches snapped, and Fang yelled at him.

* * *

Fang turned his head over his shoulder. "_Max! I've got him!_" he yelled before pounding toward the blind boy.

Iggy was a sickening sight.

His left wing was curled up against his back, his right one stretched out behind him with feathers torn out and blood curling from the light-colored feathers. His left shoulder was soaked in blood. His t-shirt was torn and blood was still seeping from the gruesome wound tearing straight through his shoulder. His shirt and pants were grass-stained and muddy, mixing with crimson blood. He had a nasty bruise on his jaw, a split lip, and a bruise forming under his left eye.

As the rest of the flock appeared behind Fang, the dark-haired boy tenderly lifted the unconscious teen into his arms and simply said, "Let's get him back to the house."

* * *

Iggy awoke with a pounding in his head, a stiff wing, and his entire body aching as if he had just gone backwards through a meat grinder. Even breathing hurt.

He lay perfectly still, not moving, controlling every painful intake of air. He kept his eyes lightly closed, hands limp. He could hear quiet talking in the room with him, as well as feel two fingers lightly pressed against the inside of his right wrist, keeping tabs on his pulse.

"Should we wake him?" Nudge was saying.

"Nah," Gazzy said. "An Iggy with a rude awakening is a terrifying sight."

A cool hand brushed across Iggy's forehead and down his cheek.

"He's not as hot as before," Max said quietly. "He should wake up on his own any time now. He's recovering from the blood loss faster than I thought he would, and his ribs are nearly healed." Her voice suddenly changed tone. "Fang, did you find any sign of Desiree when you went out searching?"

"Nothing but those four feathers," Fang replied in a soft baritone.

"Which means they got her," Angel said in a tiny voice. "Do you think Iggy knows?"

"We all saw him fall," Max replied, "after the copter took off. I think he realized she was gone by the time he hit the ground."

Iggy's heart slammed into his throat with a sudden jump. He didn't know what he had expected, but her being truly _taken_ was not one of them.

"Max," Fang said suddenly. "His pulse just shot up."

"Take a guess why," the blind boy muttered. He pulled his elbows back and pushed himself up, wincing heavily. "Ow, my everything."

"Iggy," Gazzy said, and a weight landed on the couch beside his legs. "Are you okay?"

"As okay as I could be." His fingers felt something rough and warm wrapped around his left shoulder. "What's this?"

"We bandaged up your shoulder where you got shot, Ig," Max said. "We got you back to the house and stopped the bleeding, and Fang generously gave you an entire pint of blood to replace what you'd lost."

"You didn't have to do that," Iggy muttered.

"You would have died without it," Fang shot back.

Iggy tried to move his wings—and actually cried out as pain, white-hot and lethal, stabbed like a lighting bolt through his right wing.

"Don't _move_ it!" Nudge cried, and soft hands pressed against one of his tawny wings. "You broke it, and it's still healing. We haven't gotten a chance to see to the cleaning of your feathers yet, so—don't touch it, either!"

Iggy's hand was swatted away as he twisted, trying to feel the damage. He could only picture how he looked—bandaged, bruised, one wing awkward. Anger and fury rose quickly in his chest.

"Where's Desiree?" he demanded. There was a sudden shuffling, but no one responded. Iggy swung his legs off of the side of the couch and sat up straight.

_"Where's Desiree_?" he said, louder.

"She was too far away for us to get to her," Nudge finally said, hesitantly.

"God knows if you all _tried!_" Iggy yelled. He stood up. "You all can _see_, can't you? Why the _hell_ didn't you _do_ anything?!" He slammed one hand against his chest, ignoring the pain. "I remember what it was like to see. Basically, it meant I _knew_ what was going on! Now, because of those goddamned whitecoats, I've lost that!" His voice rose in volume. "And those savages have Desiree now! And you all just let her _go!_ It's because she isn't part of the flock, isn't it?! _Isn't it?!_"

"Iggy," Fang said in a low voice. Iggy whirled.

"You were to go after her!" he raged. "You could have tried to save her! You could have tracked the copter! And the rest of you!" He spun back around. "Why didn't any of you even _try_ to go after the Erasers?! I'm blind—I _can't see_, and I _never will be able to again_—and I tried harder than any of you to get her _back!_"

"Ig," Max said. He felt a hand touch his good shoulder. Iggy whirled and swung one fist out. He felt the rush of air as Max jerked away, just barely missing his blow.

"You didn't even try to follow her! You would have flown to the _ends of the Earth_ to save any member of the flock!" Iggy reminded her bitterly. "Remember that? You said that to us two years ago, after Jeb died! The only reason you didn't go after Desi was because she _isn't part of the flock_, isn't it?! _This is all your fault, Maximum Ride!_"

"Iggy, don't cry." Gazzy's voice was small and scared.

Iggy didn't realize he was crying until his eyes burned hot and he felt the wetness on his cheeks. He scratched them away furiously, beyond caring. "You _let_ her get stolen." His voice was suddenly weak, trembling, cracked. "You just didn't want another mouth to feed. You just didn't want another trembling little fledgling to take care of. Don't give me all your damn excuses." He took two steps backwards, stumbling over one of Nudge's feet. "I don't give a damn what the rest of you do. I _care_ what happens to her. I'm going after her."

"But you can't fly yet," Angel said, and he heard a single footstep. Iggy retreated two more. He could hear the soft rush of air from the doorway, could smell the dogwood tree outside the door. He was already plotting an escape.

"Damn flying," Iggy said, clenching his hands into fists. "I'll start on foot if I have to. The more time I waste here, the farther away she gets. I'm not going to let what happened to me happen to _anyone else!_ Especially not Desi!"

With that, Iggy choked on a sob, jammed his fist against his mouth, turned, and pounded from the house.


	4. Chapter 3 - Tempers

After Iggy takes off, Fang decides to be...Fang.

Enjoy~! ;)

* * *

Briars tore at his bare feet. He fell over tree roots a few times, hitting his knees, before staggering to his feet. Once he had put some distance between the house and himself, Iggy slowed to a walk, chest heaving, and continued on, more careful now.

His eyes had stopped burning. The pain of his wounds was slowly returning. He though seriously about turning and heading back to the house until he was fully healed. But he would get no rest from the others if he went back now. They would put him under lock and key until he was back to 110%.

He walked for another half-hour before he felt hot sunlight on his back and head and tipped his head up. More warmth greeted him.

_Judging by the way the wind is moving, the way the birds are strangely far off, and the sudden sunlight_, Iggy thought, _this is a clearing._

He was pondering whether or not to spread his wings and try to fly when harsh wingbeats echoed from above, and five pairs of feet landed on the grass.

"You moron," Fang growled. "You honestly think we'd make you go alone?"

* * *

"This is by _far _the most mortifying moment of my entire _life_," Iggy muttered into Fang's shoulder.

"I swear to God, I will drop you."

Flying at near cloud level, sore, tired, and injured Iggy was being carried in Fang's strong arms as he flew with the rest of the flock. The urge to spread his wings and lift from the dark-haired boy's grip was overwhelming. But Iggy was entirely too sore to even consider doing that.

"It's a seven hour flight to the School," Fang said after a while. "We've been going, what, two hours? We need to stop and rest soon. I'm getting tired."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"Do _not_ tempt me."

"The sun's setting, too," Max pointed out. "We should find a place to camp for the night, or at least for a few hours. Eat, rest, let Iggy heal the rest of the way."

"We can get his feathers cleaned up too, so he can fly with us tomorrow," Angel said in her innocent voice from somewhere close to the two fourteen-year-old boys.

"Let's go for another half-hour at most, and if we don't find anywhere, we'll pitch camp in the trees or something," Max declared. "Fang, do you need help?"

"No." The word was just barely breathless, something only Iggy caught.

"I can try to fly—," he began.

"_No_."

"Is jinx five ways quin-jinx?" Iggy muttered half-heartedly, leaning against Fang's chest and closing his eyes.

Unintentionally, he fell asleep.

* * *

"He feels heavier when he's asleep," Fang grunted fifteen minutes later. Max looked over at him. His wingbeats were slower and jerkier, and his face was flushed. Fang was usually at the head of the flock in the air, but he was quickly falling behind.

In his arms, Iggy slept on.

"C'mon guys," Max called. "Let's find a place to rest for a while."

* * *

Iggy woke up feeling much better than he had since the shot.

He sat up and stretched out his arms, trying to feel for something. He merely met empty air. Sitting very still, he focused all of his senses.

His fingers danced lightly across the floor underneath him. Cool stone kissed his fingertips. The entire place smelled damp and cold. He could hear the quiet, even breathing of the flock all around him, even Gazzy's light snoring. Iggy stood up and stretched one hand up. His hand met cold rock, and something wet dripped down his arm. He brought it to his face and sniffed, warily tasting it.

_Water_.

_If I had to guess, I'd say a cave_, he thought to himself. Using his ears, Iggy tenderly picked around the rest of the flock and followed the soft whistling of wind toward the entrance.

He had barely taken five paces out of the mouth of the cavern when pebbles crumbled away beneath his feet. He backpedaled rapidly and barked his wings on solid rock.

"Okay, we're not that close to the ground," he murmured, kneeling and stretching out one hand, feeling for the edge of the cliff. Upon finding it, he crawled closer and listened intently. He could hear the soft rush of water pretty distantly, the whistling of wind, and the gentle chirping of birds from nearby rustling trees.

Iggy sat down and stretched out his good wing, beating it a couple times. Using both hands, he tenderly unwrapped the bandages from his right wing and flexed it. Pain rocketed through every muscle and bone, but it faded as he stretched it out to its full length and let it beat slowly a few times.

He stood up and backed under the overhang, holding out his hands to make sure he knew where the walls were.

"Okay," he said aloud. "Seven steps, jump, and unfurl. Seven, no more."

His feet slammed exactly seven times on the ground before he pushed off strongly and fell into open air. He spread his arms and legs an instant before his wings caught the air and he jerked upwards with a soft gasp of pain.

Upstroke, _oww._ Downstroke, _oww._ Another upstroke, another flash of pain.

He found a warm updraft and let himself coast on it, doing a nimble backflip before letting the current pull him along again, light-colored feathers hardly making a sound.

He let out a whoop and flipped again, folding in his wings and plummeting toward the ground. An instant before he kissed the water, he spread them and pulled up again, his bare feet splashing into the cool wetness.

"_God_, I love flying!" he shouted, swooping up in an ark and meeting the updraft again.

* * *

Fang woke up with a start, a gasp escaping his lips.

His heart slammed against his ribs. For a moment, he didn't know what had awoken him. Then he realized he could hear shouts and cries from outside. He scrambled to his feet, dark eyes wide. He leapt nimbly over Max, skipped around Gazzy, and dashed for the entrance to the cave, wincing in the sunrise.

A large figure with a fourteen-foot wingspan was doing circles around the lake under the cliff, laughing and whooping. Fang had never wanted to throttle anyone more.

Spreading his night-black wings, he launched himself off of the cliff and was beside Iggy in a few powerful strokes.

"Iggy, you should be resting!" he called over the rush of wind.

"Oh, hey, Fang," the blind boy responded, angling his wings and swooping under the other teen, pulling up on his other side with a few quick strokes. "My wing's better."

"I can tell!" Fang shouted.

"Sheesh, don't take out your early morning grumpiness on me, mister," Iggy said cheerfully. He banked and avoided a tall sycamore tree, swooping in another circle around Fang. "Y'know, I'm kind of hungry."

"You—," Fang said in disbelief as he followed the blind boy. "I will never understand you, you know that, right?"

"Of course I do," Iggy said. He floated overtop of Fang, his shadow stretching over the dark-eyed boy's. With that, he instantly folded his wings in and shouted, "Cannonball!"

"What the—"

Fang's exclamation was cut off by Iggy slamming into him and sending them both plummeting, tumbling together, into the water with a massive splash.

* * *

Max woke up to the sound of a cry, cut off by a splash.

She bolted upright, accidentally startling Gazzy, who yelped and woke up Angel and Nudge.

The littlest girl sat up and rubbed one eye. "Max? Where's Fang and Iggy?"

Max realized the two boys were missing. She leapt to her feet. "Nudge, keep Gazzy and Angel in here—_don't argue with me, Gazzy!_"

The boy snapped his mouth smartly shut.

She darted to the mouth of the cave to see water settling back into place on the lake. There was moment of stillness before a figure burst through the water and shouted, "Damn you, Iggy!"

Another figure appeared, laughing heartily. "You should have _heard_ yourself, Fang!"

"Oh, ha ha! I'm really laughing!" Fang spun around and began swimming for the shore. "Get out your own way!"

"Huh? No, wait—Fang? Where's the shore at? Fang? I'm blind over here! Hey! _Fang!_"

With a sigh, Max spread her wings and flew out over the lake and shouted, "Iggy! Follow my voice!"

"Max? All right."

Fang hauled himself out of the water just as Max landed on the opposite bank, watching the blind boy swim strongly in the wake of the dark-winged teen.

"You could have helped him," Max said.

"He could have not thrown me into the water by hitting my back," Fang replied, wringing out his shirt. "He hit that one spot between my shoulders that makes my wings lock."

"Oh, you have one of those too?" Iggy said innocently, stumbling a bit as he waded from the water. "Mine's just above the small of my back, right at that scar from when I fell out of the tree three years ago."

"I guess your wings are feeling better?" Max asked dryly.

"Yeah," Iggy replied. "We can set off." He was all seriousness now. "As in, right now." He spread his wings, shaking them back and forth and shedding water droplets. "As in, let's get our butts in gear. _Now_."

"We have to eat something before we get going," Max said. "Can you two wait here and dry off while I rouse the others so we can get going and get some food?"

"Does that mean wait here and _not_ fight?" they asked as one.

"Give it your best effort."


	5. Chapter 4 - Troublemakers

No author's note this time-just a funny, comic relief chapter!

* * *

"Iggy, I think when she said 'wait here', she meant at the lakeside," Fang snapped at the blind boy. He ignored him, concentrating on flying. In order to eat, they needed food. In order to get food, they needed money, of which they had none.

So Iggy planned to be of use and get some from a nearby town.

"Iggy. For Pete's sake, Iggy, listen to me. I'm trying to lecture you here."

"No. If you haven't noticed, I'm _blind_, and I have to focus on _flying_ to not _hit_ anything."

Fang sighed from somewhere to his left. "Let's just hit the ground. I can lead you around and then you can listen to me lecture you."

"Fine, bossy boots."

Once they had touched down, Iggy put one finger in Fang's belt loop and let the other boy lead him.

"Now, I'm sure when Max finds out that we didn't listen, she's going to be a little more than annoyed and just a bit more than worried," Fang continued, coming to a halt. "Red light."

"So are we just walking so you can play 'Red Light, Green Light', or are you really going to lecture me the entire time?" Iggy questioned.

"A little bit of both."

Iggy couldn't help but sigh. He opened his mouth to say something, but a warm scent drifted past him and he stopped, turning his head.

"What smells so good? It's coming from over there," he said in a curious voice, nodding toward the source of the smell.

"Looks like either a donut shop or honey-roasted nuts," Fang replied. "But in order to get either one, we have to get _money_. The light's green. Let's go."

Iggy followed Fang off of the curb and across the street, running one hand through his hair. "Is this a small town or a big town?"

"Eh, somewhere in the middle," Fang replied. "There's no skyscrapers, but it's a busy place."

Iggy felt a man bump into him and heard the scuff of shoes behind him. "Watch it, boy!" he snarled. Iggy spun around.

"I can't _watch_ anything, I'm sorry," he said in a mock pleasant voice. His worry for Desi was beginning to leak into his temper, no matter how much he tried to control it. "You can see, can't you? Maybe you should pay more attention instead of—"

Hands gripped his shoulders and pulled him backwards. "We're leaving," Fang hissed in his ear. "Can't you go anywhere without picking a fight?"

"Picking a fight was a bit reckless," Iggy admitted, holding up a slim black case, "especially since I picked _this_."

"Iggy, you didn't just pickpocket that guy?" Fang asked in disbelief.

"No. I merely borrowed his wallet. There's a difference. Tell me how much is in here."

Fang took the wallet and flipped it open. Iggy heard him counting quietly before he said in awe, "Five hundred plus."

"Goody," Iggy said, rubbing his hands together. "Now let's go, Fang. I want some honey-roasted nuts."

Fang let out a disapproving sigh. "We should go get the rest of the flock."

"Ah, Fang, c'mon," Iggy pleaded. "Just _one_ thing of nuts?"

"Max is going to kill me."

* * *

They arrived back at the lakeside with five boxes of donuts, six bags of honey-roasted peanuts, and some breakfast kabobs they had found in a breakfast shop.

Max was less than pleased.

"Okay, so you slip off, pickpocket just under six-hundred bucks from a guy, buy us all food, and show up expecting _not_ to get reprimanded?" she demanded.

"Yes?" Iggy tried.

"I tried to warn him," Fang murmured.

* * *

After they all had eaten, Iggy was the first into the air, flying in impatient little circles and biting his nails.

Gazzy brushed his hands away from his mouth. "We're coming, Ig."

* * *

Iggy, usually flying behind Fang and Max, above Nudge and below Gazzy, was in the lead, his face solemn, his mind focused on only one thing—getting to the School before sunset.

He just had to rescue Desiree before the whitecoats did anything terrible to her. He didn't want her to be permanently scarred or maimed like he was, unable to see or hear, her life torn away because he couldn't get there in time.

The thought made his throat close up. He put on a burst of speed and pumped his wings harder.

"Hey, Iggy, slow down!" Max called, pulling up beside him. "We're still in for a four-hour flight. You shouldn't waste all of your energy in the first leg of the race."

"What energy?" Iggy snarled through his teeth. "All I feel is fury."

Max didn't respond to that one.


End file.
